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Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Rundown On How Diezani Lavished $100m On Furniture, Artworks - United States

According to the US, while she held sway as the
Nigerian petroleum minister, Diezani, who was otherwise known as “the
Madam” or “Madam D,” led “a lavish and privileged lifestyle,” spending
“more than one million dollars on furniture, artwork, and other
furnishings purchased within the Southern District of Texas, and
shipped, in part, to London and Abuja, Nigeria.”These were contained in a
91-page “verified complaint” filed by the US Government before the US
District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where it
is seeking an order to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m linked to
Diezani.

The US, in the “verified complaint” signed by a special agent with the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Elizabeth Crispino, said Diezani
allegedly acquired the assets with kickbacks from “an international
conspiracy to obtain lucrative business opportunities in the Nigerian
oil and gas sector.”

The assets, the US stated, were acquired between April 2010 and May 2015
when Diezani was “overseeing Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.”

Among the properties, which the US now seeks to be forfeited, are a
65-metre motor yacht, named M/Y Galactica Star; two properties known as
807 and 815 Cima Del Mundo Road, Montecito, Calif; as well as funds in a
couple of companies.

The US stated that Diezani, with the help of and in conspiracy with two
Nigerian businessmen, Kolawole Akanni Aluko and Olajide Omokore,
“laundered the proceeds of the illicit business opportunities into and
through the United States.”

In the court processes obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the US
detailed, using tables, the “living and lifestyle expenses for
Alison-Madueke.”

One table, tagged, ‘Rental Payments,’ showed how Aluko and his company,
Tracon Investments Limited, helped Diezani to make a total of at least
£537,922 in rental payments for two central London residences both
located at 22 St. Edmunds Terrace, London NW8 7QQ, where Diezani and her
mother stayed between August 2011 and January 2014.

Another table, tagged, ‘Transportation Services’, showed how Aluko and
his beneficially-owned company, TENKA, helped Diezani to make at least
£393,274.32 in payments to a car hire company, the “Chauffeur Company”,
while Omokore and his own company, Energy Property Development Ltd.,
also paid at least £4,424.40 to the “Chauffeur Company” to convey
Diezani and her family about the UK between December 2012 through at
least July 2014.

The FBI agent, Crispino, stated, “Upon information and belief, the above
payments were made corruptly by, on behalf of, or at the direction of
Aluko and Omokore for the benefit of Alison-Madueke and/or her family,
in return for Alison-Madueke’s having improperly influenced the award of
the Forcados SAAs to AEDC and in anticipation of or in return for her
improperly influencing the award of the Brass SAA.

“In particular, the director of the Chauffeur Company has stated that
in or around June 2014, he was assaulted in the hallway outside of
Alison-Madueke’s known residence at Flat 19, 22 St. Edmunds Terrace,
London NW8 7QQ, by two men known by the director to be Alison-Madueke’s
associates.

“This assault occurred as the director of the Chauffeur Company was
attempting to deliver a letter concerning approximately £224,000 in
unpaid services provided by his company to Alison-Madueke.